The officials investigating the Russian crash that killed 224 are saying there was no pilot error and no mechanical failure. They have concluded that some sort of ‘impact on the plane’ caused the crash. It was thought that the plane was too high for a shoulder-launch missile to reach it. ISIS had claimed responsibility right after the crash but the Russian officials have been looking into every possibility. Eyewitness testimony points to the plane being shot down: HOW ISIS COULD HAVE SHOT DOWN THE RUSSIAN PLANE
The Russian passenger jet that crashed in Sinai, Egypt, must have been damaged by a force in flight and couldn’t have just broken apart, the airline of the ill-fated Airbus A321 said. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has urged an end to speculation until the investigation is complete.
“It would be wrong to articulate any preliminary guesses or voice statements that are not based on anything,” said Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for the Russian president, on Monday. “Let the investigators produce at least some results first.”
The crew of Kolavia Flight 7K9268 was apparently disabled before the aircraft started its rapid descent and crashed in the Sinai Peninsula on Saturday, Viktor Yung, deputy director of the airline told the media on Monday.
“As the catastrophic incident started to develop, the crew members were rendered completely incapable. This explains why they didn’t attempt to contact air traffic and report the incident happening on board,” he said.
The airline doesn’t believe human error could have been the cause of the disaster either, citing the experience of its captain and other crewmembers.“We are certain that neither technical malfunction nor pilot error” can be blamed for the disaster, Smirnov said.
The company believes that serious structural damage by an external force may have caused the crash.
“The only possible explanation is a mechanical force acting on the aircraft,” Aleksand Smirnov, who supervises the company’s fleet, said. “There is no combination of system failures that could have broken the plane apart in the air.”